RP endgames

William Hartson, a grandmaster, once said that an entire book could be written on simply the mechanics of rooks and pawns in the endgame. Indeed, so complicated are the positions which often arise, that this seems obvious. Even grandmasters often make a simple mistake earlier on which they have to subtly pay for later. Let us talk about positions where material is level, for the sake of simplicity. The main problem many players fail to tackle is the opposite wings problem. Kings and rooks shouldn't ideally operate on the same wing because while a rook and a king try to stop a passed pawn, the opponent's king can gobble up pawns on the other side. For passed pawns, rooks need to always be behind the passed pawn to guide its advance, and not impede its progress. The king should be defended but once queens are off the board kings actually attack and defend pawns the best. The king should be gradually advanced and it should deny room to the opponent's pieces. It should go without saying that an active rook is better than a passive one. Rooks should infiltrate the second(for black) and the seventh(for white) ranks where a majority of the pawns remain and cannot be defended easily. An aggressive mindset is imperative. A final tip is that two pawns on and beyond the 5th rank can easily beat a rook provided the king is far away. Even a pawn and king can either win or draw against a lone rook. This should be kept in mind when driving the opponent's king to the other wing of the board while you create a potential passed pawn. Doubled pawns not only provide an extra open file to rooks, but they are difficult to defend and must be exchanged quickly or even sacrificed in extreme cases.